Impact of Korea's Non-regular Worker Protection Act on job satisfaction

Abstract

Exploiting the exogenous introduction of the Non-regular Worker Protection Act on non-regular workers, this paper examines the impact of this law's enactment on workers' job satisfaction. Using the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study, we apply a difference-in-differences method combined with propensity score matching to confirm the common trends assumption and construct a comparable control group. We investigate workers' job satisfaction in terms of the following categories: satisfaction with wages, satisfaction with job stability, satisfaction with working conditions, and overall satisfaction. Our results indicate positive effects of the Non-regular Worker Protection Act on job satisfaction for all workers affected by the law, including those who converted from non-regular employment to regular employment.